AmericanPapist Comments
One of the reasons that University Presidents such as Father Dennis Dease at the University of St Thomas in St Paul, so ardently defend the solemnity of the Commencement Ceremony is that academia has determined that it is to be the secular, yet holy, baptism for life.
You are nothing without that college or university degree, they say. A few years out of the university, ask those graduates in non-technical fields if that is the case.
For many of them, they will respond that it wasn't "what they learned", but "how to learn" during a four year process that hopefully also involved growth in their maturity.
University presidents recognize that many of their graduates will never read a serious book again.
They are terrified that some day someone will develop a system where "learning how to read and learn"
will become a much shorter, and inexpensive, curriculum that will do a far, far better job of preparing its graduates for a lifetime of continued reading and learning in subjects of their choosing at their own pace.
The assertion that this ought to have been such a "happy occasion" is somewhat frustrating in itself. From those to whom much is given, much is in turn expected. Receiving a degree should be seen as an opportunity to pause and think about the responsibilities that are incumbant upon one now that a higher level of education has been achieved. This should be especially evident to Catholics. Any Catholic who is really living his or her life with conviction to pursuing a life of holiness in the Lord should be happy to hear a challenging speech such as this on the day of "commencement." It's kind of ironic: being upset by the speech is itself a manifestation of a type of selfishness. If they saw their academic recognition as a gift from God, they would probably have smiled in selfless gratitude through all of Mr. Kessler's words.
Fr. Dease: Wrong answer!
"...Mr. Kessler might have dealt with the subject of “selfishness” from a Catholic perspective that could have been edifying." - Fr. Fox
Um...no disrespect, Father, but Mr. Kessler did. It surely impacted a bunch of people, and got a lot of people talking about the issues.
Fr. Fox should be standing behind Ben Kessler, not kicking him in the shins.
Um...no disrespect, Father, but Mr. Kessler did. It surely impacted a bunch of people, and got a lot of people talking about the issues.
Fr. Fox should be standing behind Ben Kessler, not kicking him in the shins.
He is standing behind Ben Kessler. Read Fr. Fox's post more carefully. He was quoting Father Dease responding to an email he sent (posted here), not writing those words himself.
The link in the comment I just posted is misdirected. Try this one.
I always thought graduations were meant to be sad as well as happy; just think of Pomp and Circumstance.
Apologies to Fr. Fox...I miss-read who was who. Please replace all references to "Fr. Fox" in my previous post with "Fr. Dease".
Commenting by HaloScan
